Our Journey

Welcome to Glory Be Gardens, our backyard horticultural hobby! ​

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I began hybridizing diploid daylilies about 20 years ago with the encouragement of several local club mentors. Hybridizer Patti Waterman is an inspiring friend who gives me honest feedback and pushes me to continue to improve. I’ve also listened intently to hybridizer presentations at American Daylily Society regional and national meetings and have scoured internet forums and email groups for tips.

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One niche that I knew that I wanted to fill was to develop miniature to small crispate unusual forms. This has been a challenge, as there were few existing small "Unusual Forms" from which to build a program. Using the species Hemerocallis yezoensis, I have unlocked some favorable genes. I have also created my own bridge plants by crossing open miniatures with larger unusual form parents. It is taking many generations to see the results I desire, but flower arrangers in my local club have encouraged me. They feel smaller flowers with movement will add personality to daylily design entries in flower shows.

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Bringing in the genetics for northern re-bloom, bud count, branching and bud-building have become increasingly important to me as well. I want my registrations to be hardy in mid-western zone 6a winter freeze-thaw cycles as well as extreme summer heat and drought.  I value extended bloomers that look fresh late in the day for folks coming home from work to enjoy their gardens.

Along the way, the traits for dark-colored scapes appeared and I now specialize in this line.  Purple to black tones make the emerging scapes (stems) fascinating even before the buds open and speckled pods add garden interest even after bloom has ended.  Lavender bracts and dark sepal reverses add color to other garden angles.  Starting in 2017, registration names carrying the Glory Be prefix designate my cultivars with some degree of pigmented scapes.

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For me, hybridizing is a way to participate in creation. I carry the pollen and pull the weeds; God packs the seeds with possibilities and draws forth from the soil an amazing palette of petals. Gardening connects me to the farmers in my past and fills me with hopeful anticipation every spring. Hybridizing is both a science and an art. My analytic side loves to keep spreadsheets of seedling data and anticipate genetic combinations. My artistic side loves to photograph and share the beautiful results. Glory Be - what a hobby!

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